Rossville and Buck Creek Mennonite Settlement (Indiana, USA)

Rossville and Buck Creek (Indiana) Mennonite settlement, now extinct, was located in two distinct districts, one near Rossville and the other near Buck Creek. Their farms were located in the counties of Tippecanoe, Carroll, and Clinton. They were attracted to this area by cheap land and good springs.

The first Mennonites in this area were the brothers John and Christian Zimmerman, who came from Missouri in 1870. Both were ministers. They organized the first congregation of Mennonites, which soon became affiliated with the "Egly-Amish." Other families moving there in the 1870's and 1880's and likely of Amish background were the Schonbecks, Gerbers, Ehresmans, Schrocks, Hirsheys, Gingerichs, and Wises. The Swiss Mennonite settlement in Putnam County, Ohio, contributed a large number of families, including the following names: Amstutz, Mellinger, Basinger, Bucher, Lutz, and Lehmann. Some of these soon left the Mennonite Church and joined the German Reformed Church or Dunkard Church nearby. Until 1890 the Mennonite church services were held in the homes. At that time a meetinghouse was erected near Buck Creek on the Chris Schonbeck farm. The membership varied from 30 to 35 in 1906-28. Besides the Zimmerman brothers, other ministers were Christian Gerber, Levi Mellinger, Sam Ehresman, and John Rediger. In 1944 the last church services were held in Buck Creek. In 1941 a Defenseless Mennonite Church was started in Lafayette (later known as Lafayette Evangelical Mennonite Church), some 15 miles away. Most of the families from Buck Creek and Rossville have moved away. Some of the remaining ones worship at Lafayette.